It’s never a great idea for a team to give up three goals in less than three minutes, but doing it with a 4-0 lead is probably the best bad time to do it. The Tampa Bay Lightning almost coughed up the lead in the third period against the New York Islanders, but Jake Guentzel finally put the puck in the empty net to secure a 5-3 win for the Bolts. Surprise starter Jonas Johansson may have given up three goals, but by all accounts he was the best player on the ice for the Bolts as he made 35 saves on the day.
Nikita Kucherov continued his climb to the points race by adding another four to his season total with a goal and three assists. With 109 points on the season he moved into a tie with Nathan MacKinnon at the top of the leaderboard (in five less games). Brayden Point added two more goals to his total while Nick Perbix snapped a 39-game goalless streak to open the scoring.
It wasn’t the prettiest win of the season, and even Coach Jon Cooper admitted after the game that they probably didn’t deserve to be up by four goals in the third period, but he also wasn’t going to apologize for the win. There were plenty of games this year (especially in January) where the Bolts likely deserved the win, but couldn’t quite get the puck to go in the net. Today was the opposite, as almost everything they put on net went in, especially in the first period.
Kucherov, Perbix, and Point all scored in a first period where the Lightning only generated seven shots on goal. Point added his second of the night late in the second period, and it seemed like the streak of blowouts at home would reach three. The Islanders started their comeback with a power play goal from Ryan Pulock six minutes into the final period. Marc Gatcomb put one past Johansson just under two minutes later, and Tony DeAngelo cut the lead to one just a minute later.
With more than half of the period still to play, the Lightning finally got back into the action and picked up their intensity a bit. Kucherov had a chance to end things with an empty-netter as Patrick Roy pulled Ilya Sorokin with just over two minutes to play, but turned the puck over trying to set up Brandon Hagel. Jake Guentzel settled the heart rates of Lightning fans in the building shortly after when he did put it into the empty cage (with an assist from Kucherov) to restore the two-goal lead and ensure the victory.
The two teams will meet up again in a few days as the Islanders host their portion of the home-and-home at UBS Arena. With the win tonight, the Lightning leap-frog the Toronto Maple Leafs (at least for a few hours, pending the results of their game against the L.A. Kings) and move into a virtual tie with the idle Florida Panthers at the top of the division. Florida does have a better winning percentage so they are technically in the lead.
